YMCA director: Rec program change going ‘extremely well’

Tuesday

Feb 4, 2014 at 4:00 PM

By John MulcahyDaily Telegram Staff Writer

The transition to the YMCA of Lenawee County operating recreation programs formerly operated by the city of Adrian has been smooth, YMCA Executive Director Sue Smith told the Adrian City Commission Monday.

Smith presented an update on the transition during the commission’s study session before its regular meeting.

“The first few months have gone extremely well,” Smith said.

The YMCA took over operating the programs in September of last year, after the city decided to eliminate its recreation department for budget reasons. Under its agreement with the YMCA, the city still maintains the city-owned facilities where the programs take place, such as playing fields, the Piotter Center and Bohn Pool.

A former city recreation department employee, Brent Kubalek, who now works full time for the YMCA, also works on a contractual basis with the city performing tasks such as scheduling facilties and coordinating upkeep of the Piotter Center.

All the programs previously offered by the city are being offered by the YMCA, Smith said.

Smith distributed a chart showing participation in 2012 and 2013 for the 21 programs the YMCA has operated so far. Five of the programs saw an increase in the number of participants. Of 15 that saw a decrease in 2013, seven were within five participants of the 2012 participation numbers. One had the same number as in 2012.

“All in all you’ll see that these participation numbers are pretty consistent with what transpired before,” Smith said.

The biggest drop was in the “Santa at Stubnitz” event, where the originally scheduled event had to be canceled because of a snowstorm and the make-up date did not draw nearly as many people as in 2012. In that case, 930 people attended the event in 2012 while 330 attended in 2013.

The YMCA’s direct costs for running the programs and its income from them is “fairly break-even,” Smith said.

So far, fees for the programs have remained the same or very close to the same as the fees when the city was running the programs, Smith said.

“It’s one of those things that we still have the option to increase as we see the need change, and we’ll look at that as we go forward, but during these first several months ... we really wanted to maintain that and make sure we’re delivering what people were used to,” Smith said.

Smith said she would like more certainty regarding the city’s employment of Kubalek, whom she called a “key part of our team.”

City parks and forestry director Justin Combs, whose department is responsible for the recreational facilities, called the transition to YMCA operation of the programs “very smooth.”

Combs said he had participated in three or four of the recreation programs and volunteered in three or four more.

“From a participant’s standpoint there really hasn’t been a change other than you register the “Y” as opposed to city hall,” Combs said.